Must Read these!

Cook thinks you should invest in atleast one of these books and read them through out the year.

A great place to get them for super cheap? Use Amazon.com under "used"

Both The Idiot's Guide and Don't Know much are good, but very basic.

Johnson is $4 on Amazon, Zinn is $9. Both are big books, but great and interesting reads. Johnson is the conservative, Zinn is the liberal. They are both factual and well writen books, and the political bias probably won't bother you on either choice